


Per Ardua Ad Astra

by mysticmajestic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Developing Relationship, Hunk (Voltron) Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Lance (Voltron) Whump, Langst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Pidge | Katie Holt Whump, Platonic Cuddling, Psychological Trauma, Shiro (Voltron) Whump, Slow Burn, Team Bonding, Team as Family, War, shangst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-07-05 00:25:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15852492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticmajestic/pseuds/mysticmajestic
Summary: The weight of the universe is a difficult burden to bear. But the paladins of Voltron must bear it, for there is no other choice. They are the only ray of hope amidst a war-torn universe.But the reality of war is a harsh wake-up call. They all must learn to work as a cohesive team and support each other if they wish to survive it at all.A Shance rewrite of VLD.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Despite having enjoyed every season of the show so far, I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I would do differently. The arcs I would give the characters. This is my way of getting that off my chest. I am not doing this for monetary gain, just for fun.

“Prisoner 117-9875 appears to be dying.”

“Yes, Haggar…”

“Search for the cause. We cannot allow this continue. Too much time and energy has been spent on him for it all to go to waste.”

“Yes, Haggar…”

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

* * *

_“Takashi,” says Adam. Clutching the edge of the table, he breathes heavily like he’s run a marathon. Rolling his shoulders back, Shiro meets his furious gaze with all the strength and determination he possesses. The half-finished application forms that sit innocuously between them. The tension is so thick between them Shiro could cut it. It sets his teeth on edge. “What is this?”_

_“My application for the Kerberos mission,” says Shiro simply. He should have known not to hide them in his sock drawer. Should have known that Adam would them since, ever since the diagnosis, he was prone to go snooping through drawers as if thinking Shiro was concealing something from him._

_Adam’s knuckles turn white around the polished steel. “When were you going to tell me about this?”_

_“When the final decision was made.”_

_“I thought we discussed this, Takashi. You’re too sick to go on that mission! The doctor said you only had a few good years left in you—”_

_“No, you discussed this, I didn’t!” Shiro can’t stand the forced civility between them. The tension snaps under the pressure of his sudden, explosive rage. There are times when Adam barely lets him get a word in edgewise, taking control of the discussion and guiding it where he wants it to go. He can’t put up with it anymore. “You don’t need to tell me what the doctor said, Adam, I was there! I thought you would be happy for me for once!”_

_“How can I be happy when you’re choosing space over our relationship? Six years, Takashi! Six years we’ve been together. I’ve been by your side the whole goddamn time. When are you truly going to get serious about our relationship and stop choosing space over me? I mean, what records are there left for you to break—?”_

_“You mean besides this one?” Shiro jabs a finger at the application forms. “This one right here? The one to Kerberos, the farthest any human will have ever travelled away from Earth? Because I’m sure that’s one record I haven’t broken.”_

_“But if you go out there, the mission might break you!” All the rage seems to overcome Adam at once, and he slams his hand down on the table. Then again, and again. When he meets Shiro’s eyes, they’re wet with tears. “I just want to spend the next few years by your side, but you’re asking me to sacrifice the time I have left with you—”_

_“And you’re asking me to sacrifice the rest of my fucking life! I need to go on this mission, Adam. I need to. This is the last chance I will ever get to go to space. This is my last chance to achieve my dreams before this fucking disease takes over my life.”_

_Hunched over now, Adam’s entire weight seems to be held up by his arms. Shiro wants to go to him, take him in his arms, but he can’t. If he does, he’s scared Adam will take this as acquiescence. He won’t back down from his dream, he—_

_“Takashi,” says Adam, low and dull, “I want you to answer me truthfully. When you think about your life and your place in the universe…where am I in the picture? Do I…Am I even there at all?” He raises his head, and Shiro’s heart clenches at the real pain he’s met with. “If you were asked to choose between space and me, what would you choose?”_

_How is Shiro supposed to answer that? He knows in his heart what decision he would make if forced to, but he can’t just come out and say it. Despite what the argument would lead an outsider to believe, he loves Adam. But he knows in his heart he doesn’t love Adam enough to stay._

_He hesitated too long. His silence is all the answer Adam needs._

_“Fine.” Adam pushes himself upright, wiping the tears from his eyes with two rough swipes of his hands. The agony that had been etched into every atom of his being is replaced with steel and sealed over with ice, just to make sure Shiro can’t get through again. “I see how it is.”_

_Shiro knows what’s about to happen half a second before it does._

_Grabbing the application forms, Adam rips them into two, then quarters, then eighths. Throwing them up in the air, they fall like snowflakes as he stalks out of the kitchen. But that’s okay._

_There’s another application hidden in Shiro’s medicine bag._

* * *

Once in a lifetime opportunity.

One last chance to live.

“It is his arm, Haggar. It appears to be dying. It is nothing more than a useless lump of meat attached to his body.”

“Then we cut it off. He has no further use for it.”

“Scanning now for the safest place to amputate.”

* * *

_“Congratulations, Shiro,” says Commander Samuel Holt. “We’ve reviewed your application for this mission, and you’ve been chosen. You’re going to Kerberos, kid.”_

_“I—oh my god.” Shiro claps his hands over his mouth, tears springing to his eyes. After all this work, all this effort…he’s really going? “Are you serious, sir?”_

_Leaning over the desk, Sam claps Shiro on the shoulder. He’s beaming with pride, and after watching Adam walk out the door this morning with all his bags packed, it’s all the reassurance Shiro needs that he’s made the right choice. “I’m serious. You’re a gifted pilot, a true genius. I doubt there’s a known aircraft in the universe that you couldn’t fly. It’d be damned stupid of us not to pick you. With you at the helm, there’s no way this mission could fail.”_

_The Kerberos mission will mark the first time in history that a human, not a probe, will go to the edges of their solar system. And Shiro’s going to be one of the three humans to make the dream of centuries possible._

_He can’t help it; he bursts into tears. This is everything he ever wanted, ever since he sat on his Sofu’s (grandfather’s) lap and listened to all his stories about the universe beyond their world, since he first walked hand-in-hand with the man and pointed out the constellations in the sky until he knew them all by heart._

I did it, Sofu, _he thinks, hoping that his words reach Sofu, wherever he exists in the afterlife_. I finally did it. I hope I can make you proud.

_Sam hands him a tissue and thankfully says nothing about the waterworks._

* * *

It was supposed to be better than this.

* * *

_The beginning to end of the press releases and preparations lasts about six months. It’s a small price to pay, really. He gets to be the first man on Pluto's moon, first person to travel that far out to space._

_People want to interview him, take photos with him, get his autograph. And where there are fans, there are people to capitalize on it for cash. After the first week, he loses count of how many photoshoots he’s done, and how many posters and other paraphernalia there is of him now._

_It’s surreal; his ‘fans’ (he still can’t believe he has those) stare up at him in adoration. Kids dressed up as astronauts are thrust into his arms by overwhelmed parents who take photos by the dozen. Cadets, or soon-to-be-cadets, come up to him and tell him how much they aspire to be like him with their own constellation of stars glittering in their eyes._

_But he doesn’t feel like anything more than Takashi Shirogane, a man hailing from Chitose, Hokkaido in Japan, who dreamed of going to the stars and happened to have a talent for piloting. He’s hasn’t done anything these cadets aren’t doing now._

_“Nineteen years old, the youngest pilot ever to be recruited for a mission. It’s quite the remarkable achievement.” The host for Good Morning America seems almost besotted with him. She leans as far as she can into his space without touching him, cheeks flushed. “What would you say to all your fans watching you right now?”_

_“Uh, um…” Shiro flounders for a moment. He’s been preparing for this question for two days now, but now that he’s been asked all his responses fly out the window. “Well, if you want to be a pilot, just know that you can do it if you really put your mind to it. It can seem difficult and overwhelming at times, due to the instructors’ strict way of teaching…But if I can do it, you can do it. The Galaxy Garrison needs you.”_

_The host titters as if he’s made an amusing joke, then turns to the cameras and ends the segment. The broadcast cuts to a commercial break._

* * *

Where had it all gone wrong?

* * *

_“This is ridiculous,” Keith grouses, stomping down the corridor at Shiro’s side. They’ve just gotten away from a gaggle of girls who’d pushed their posters into Shiro’s hands and begged him to sign personalised messages on them. “Don’t you get sick of all their fawning?”_

_“It can be tiring,” says Shiro, “but I can’t blame them. This is a historic event.”_

_“Still, though…”_

_“Um,” says a new, male voice behind them, “pardoning me, Mr. Shirogane.”_

_Rolling his eyes, Keith spins around and snaps at the person, “Oh, what now?”_

_The person—a young man with brown skin and a head of curly brown hair—recoils, glancing uncertainly between them. In his trembling hands, he clutches a photo from one of Shiro’s earlier photoshoots._

_“Keith!” Shiro reprimands, glaring at Keith until he falls into a sullen silence, lowering his gaze to the floor. Plastering a smile on his face, Shiro turns to greet the stranger even though he feels weary to the marrow of his bones. “Ignore him, he’s always this grouchy. What can I help you with?”_

_“I was wondering if you sign my photo?” The stranger grimaces. “My English is not very good, I am sorry.”_

_“Of course!” Shiro takes the photo, pulls a permanent marker from his back pocket where he’s learned to keep it handy. “English is your second language? What’s your first?”_

_“Spanish,” the stranger replies. “I grew up in Cuba.”_

_“English isn’t my first language either,” says Shiro. He takes note of the cadet uniform, the way he’s around Keith’s age which means he’s likely just starting out and writes ‘Good luck! I believe in you! Takashi Shirogane’ in the left corner where it won’t mar the rest of the photo. “I grew up in Japan, so I had to learn English too.”_

_“I know.” The stranger rocks up onto his toes, beaming so bright he’s like a miniature sun. Shiro has to blink sun spots out of his eyes. “I am a fan of yours. You are my hero. I came here to be like you.”_

_“Oh.” Heat creeps into Shiro’s cheeks. How does this kid say stuff like that without the slightest bit of embarrassment? It’s not like Shiro hasn’t heard that kind of thing before, but he’s never heard it spoken so earnestly, like it’s the pure and simple truth that should never be hidden. “That’s really kind of you to say. I’m sorry, I forgot to ask you your name.”_

_“Lance Martinez,” says the stranger—Lance._

_Using his teeth to take the cap back off the marker, Shiro writes ‘Lance’ at the top of his scrawled message. He hands the photo back. “Well, Lance, I’m rooting for you, okay? You can do whatever you set your mind to.”_

_A wrinkle forms between Lance’s brows. “Rooting for me?”_

_“Oh, right. It means I believe in you.”_

_Lance grins again, clutching the photo in his hands delicately like it’s something precious. “Thank you!” He’s so giddy with excitement he seems to forget himself. Glancing between Shiro and Keith, he gives his head a little shake and says, “Sorry, I will be going. Thank you for signing my photo.”_

_“No worries,” says Shiro. “And remember, keep up the good work.”_

_“I will! Thank you again.”_

_When Lance is out of earshot, Keith snorts and says, “Sometimes you’re too nice for your own good, you know that?”_

_Shiro laughs, reaching up to muss Keith’s head. “One of us has gotta be. You need to fix your attitude if you’re gonna make any friends this year.”_

_Leaving Keith behind to fend for himself has been a major concern of Shiro’s. Ever since Shiro brought him in, he hasn’t exactly played well with his classmates, drawing a lot of ire from Commander Iverson. No matter how much Shiro has tried, he can’t seem to impress upon the fact that Keith won’t be able to curry favour with the staff for much longer, no matter how skilled of a pilot he is. Talent only gets a person so far in life. But every time he comes close to broaching the subject, Keith gets in a huff and refuses to listen. Shiro can only hope Keith learns the lesson whilst he’s gone. He knows Keith can go far in life if he just tries._

_Batting Shiro’s hand away, Keith rolls his eyes and says, “I don’t need to make friends.”_

_“’Course you do. I’ll be gone for a couple of years, you know, and I won’t be able to get in contact with you. You can’t be alone that entire time.”_

_“I’ve been alone most of my life,” says Keith. “What’s a couple more years?”_

* * *

Go back!

Let me go back!

“—appears to be a vital spot—”

“Clear up the blood and rectify your mistake. We cannot lose him.”

“Yes, Haggar…”

* * *

_“I want you to know that I think this is a terrible idea,” says Admiral Sanda, stepping into Shiro’s path as he makes his way up to the aircraft. He’s said his goodbyes to Keith, leaving Matt and Sam to say goodbyes to Colleen and Katie. Ignores the spot next to Keith he had hoped Adam would stand in, but he hasn’t seen or heard from Adam in days. He knows he won’t hear from Adam again until he gets back. “Had Commander Holt not put in a good word for you, jeopardised his own position on the mission for you, someone else would have been in your stead. Someone who is not likely to run this mission into the ground because of personal issues.”_

_Surrounded by a thousand cheering spectators with camera phones, cordoned off by thin black fences and a veritable wall of impassive security guards to keep them away from the narrow strip of red carpet meant for the “heroes” of this mission, Shiro can’t give her a piece of his mind like he wants to. Or a piece of his fist. In all his years at the Garrison, as a student and as a staff member, he has never met anyone half as unlikable as her._

_“Do not fail,” she continued. “This is one of the most important missions in history. If this should fail, we’ll never see funding like this again. I don’t care if you lose all function in your right arm, or any other limb for that matter, do not fail. This mission is more important than you.”_

_“I won’t let the Garrison down,” says Shiro through gritted teeth. He loathes it when people look at him like he’s a rusty, untrustworthy machine that could crap out at any time. Like he’s breakable, fragile, unworthy of basic respect._

_“Good. Don’t.” With one last long look, she clasps her hands behind her back and walks away, chin up in the air. He wonders if that helps her pretend like her shit doesn’t stink._

_Shiro’s so incensed he doesn’t notice Matt coming up behind him until Matt drapes himself over Shiro._

_“What’s got your panties in a twist?” asked Matt. “If I squint I can almost see the black cloud hanging over your head.”_

_“Admiral Sanda,” said Shiro._

_“Ooh, yeah, say no more. Woman’s a bitch.”_

_There’s a sharp slap of flesh meeting flesh followed by a tiny cry of pain from Matt._

_“Voice your opinions on the ship,” says Sam as he walked past, ignoring Matt’s pouting, “where there aren’t five thousand cameras recording our every moment to plaster it on the Internet, not to mention the livestream going out to billions across the planet. Last thing we need is an incident. Now get up to the podium. Everyone is eager to get the speeches over and done with.”_

_Speeches take years to deliver. At the mouth of the ship he’s to pilot, Shiro’s antsy. He stands up straight, hands by his sides, refusing to budge an inch. But the itch is there, bone-deep and insistent. When Admiral Sanda takes the podium, she takes twice as long as the diplomats representing several different countries. Soon even the crowd is noticeably restless. This is not what they came here for._

_A thousand years later, she wraps up her speech and Sam takes the podium. He delivers a short and sweet speech that has the crowd cheering and excited again, waves to them as hundreds of thousands of flags from all over the world are raised in the air to flutter in the breeze. Shiro barely pauses to wave at them too before he boards._

_S_ _its in the pilot chair, tries not to think about the fact that this might be the last mission for him. The last time he’ll feel the comfortable leather seat at his back, controls in his hands. He has a couple years left to enjoy this, out here in space. What his life on Earth will become isn’t something he has to worry about now._

_He turns to Sam and Matt as they get themselves situated and comfortable in their seats. Grins at them and says, “You guys ready?”_

_“Ready as we’ll ever be,” says Matt._

_Let’s do this, Shiro thinks to himself._

* * *

 

- _Aliens, aliens, aliens, aliens—_

**_—ALIENS ALIENS ALIENS—_ **

* * *

Shiro woke up.

“Hello, my Champion,” said Haggar, leering down at him. “Finally, you are ready.”

He clenched the fist of his metal arm and prayed the next monster killed him.

Anything to escape this nightmare.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and kudos last chapter! You guys are truly wonderful. Love you all. <3

_“You are the only hope your planet has.”_

_Planet? What’s a planet? What is…anything anymore?_

_Nothing beyond this room. Nothing beyond this pain._

_This is everything and it is nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing…_

_“Keep the weapon out of the Galra Empire’s hands, do you understand?”_

_Flash of pain over his flesh arm. Pain, pain, pain._

_“Shiro? Shiro!”_

_Blood tickles down his palms. What a…funny sensation…_

_“Do you understand?”_

_Wisps of black, swirling through the air. Smoke? Fire?_

_“Retrieve the weapon.”_

_Hurts, so much pain, make it stop._

_“Take it away from Earth.”_

_Arm…where’s my arm…? So heavy, everything’s so heavy. Earth? Mission?_

_“This is your mission. Shiro!”_

_He understands. “Mission…mission…mission…”_

_Fire, burning hot, crawling over his skin, eating away at his flesh. Sensors blaring. Red, black, blue, green, yellow. Weapon, weapon. Find the weapon. Don’t fail. Weapon._

_Sensors blaring._

_Sensors blaring._

_SENSORS BLARING!_

_Darkness._

 

* * *

 

Shiro never thought he’d get to see another sunrise. Standing on the hill outside Keith’s shack, he watched the sun’s rays poke through the scattered grey clouds in the distance. The clothes he wore weren’t his; they belonged to Keith’s father. They smelled musty from being in storage, but he couldn’t complain; compared to the bodysuit and ragged shirt he had been wearing, this was heaven. He had almost forgotten what real clothes felt like.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. Shiro clenched his hands into fists, stiffening as he heard someone approach. Shifted one foot slightly further back from the other and felt the cursed cybernetic arm start to power up.

“Shiro,” said Keith’s voice, seconds before a hand landed on Shiro’s shoulder. It took all the willpower he had not to turn and attack, to remind himself that Keith was a friend, not a foe. He would not come to harm today, for once. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just…having a look.” It was setting his teeth on edge, being touched from behind like that. Unable to see Keith’s face, he couldn’t gauge his intentions, though he knew deep down they were never going to be insidious in nature. He pivoted away from the touch, trying to make it look natural. The flash of hurt and confusion in Keith’s eyes told him he’d failed, but there was nothing he could do about that now. “It’s been a long time, you know?”

Keith looked down at his feet, tapping the toe of his left shoe against the ground. “Yeah, it has.”

“How long…has it been?”

“You don’t remember?” Keith’s brows furrowed.

“Bit hard to keep track of time when you’re in captivity.” Shiro tried to smirk to show that he was trying to make light of his previous situation but felt it slide off his face like water as Keith stared up at him in horror. “It’s fine, Keith, don’t worry about it.”

“Shiro—”

“ _I’m fine_. Just, please, tell me how long it’s been.”

A flock of birds flew over their heads, cawing at the skies. Their noise only made the silence between him and Keith feel more poignant. The calm before the storm, almost.

“A year and eight months,” Keith said on an exhale, shoulders drooping. “It’s been a year and eight months since you went up into space. It’s difficult to say how long it’s been since you got…captured…by whatever’s out there. Aliens?”

Numb, Shiro barely heard himself give the whispered confirmation. How had he been missing for over two years? It felt like only a few months. Was he—was he missing something? He pressed a hand to his forehead, clenching his eyes shut. Almost _two fucking years_.

“Shiro, are you okay?”

No, he was beyond fucking okay. But nevertheless, he pulled himself back together. It wouldn’t do to fall apart now. “Yeah. Yeah, of course I am.” Keith didn’t look very convinced, and Shiro let the fake smile drop. “No, I’m not. But that doesn’t matter. Look, the Galra…they’re coming here for some kind of weapon. They said it was here on Earth, and we need to find it before they do.”

“Galra? Is that their name?”

“Yeah.” A flash of pain ripped through Shiro’s skull as he tried to recall how he knew that. He blinked tears from his eyes as he massaged his temples. “I don’t know how I know that, I just do. You have to trust me on this. We _cannot_ let the weapon fall into their hands.”

A weapon capable of mass destruction if put into the wrong hands. If the Galra got hold of it, nothing would stand in their way of achieving universal domination. Any planet that might have stood a chance at keeping them at bay would be utterly destroyed in an instant. 

“As luck would have it, I’m searching for this weapon too.” At Shiro’s surprised look, Keith’s cheeks turned a little red and he smiled, taking a few steps backward. He gestured over his shoulder at the shack. “Come back to the shack. There’s something you need to see.”

 

* * *

 

Shiro wasn’t sure what to think about the other people in Keith’s shack. Whilst he was grateful to them for assisting in his escape from the Garrison, they had their…quirks, to put it mildly. The one in the green jacket, Lance, seemed familiar somehow. Had he seen him before? When Shiro had reached out to him (“Lance, right?”) Lance had responded eagerly, as if happy to be remembered.

Hunk was the most surprising. As he built a scanner, the name of which Shiro could no longer remember, from parts he had in his backpack and found lying around, unused, in the shack, Shiro noted that despite his outward appearance Hunk was absolutely terrifying.

Hmm…For that matter, Pidge also seemed familiar. And again, he didn’t know why. There were pieces his jumbled mind couldn’t put together. Too much had happened in a short space of time. He hadn’t processed any of it yet. He pressed a hand to his forehead as it began to throb, aware of Keith’s concerned staring, feeling grateful when no questions were asked.

Pidge assisted Hunk in building the scanner. The two of them seemed to run on the same wavelength; when one suggested an idea, the other excitedly finished it. In record time, the scanner was finished and proudly displayed to the others.

“I’m sorry to rain on everyone’s parade,” said Lance. “But what exactly are we gonna do with the weapon once we find it?”

“Hide it, of course,” said Pidge. “We can’t let the aliens have it.”

“No,” said Shiro, with a shake of his head. “No, the Galra won’t stop even if they don’t find it. They’ll raze Earth looking for it. The best chance we have is convincing the Garrison somehow to get it off-planet.”

He didn’t like the idea, but the lives of over seven billion people were depending on them getting the weapon away. The technology the Galra had was so advanced that nothing on Earth could ever hope to match in the next couple hundred years.

“But then the Galra could just find it out there and take it!” Pidge protested. “And who’s to say that they won’t just turn around and blast Earth to smithereens anyway?”

That was a good point. Shiro grit his teeth, agitated. The Galra were senselessly cruel on many occasions, often without provocation. They couldn’t be counted on to be merciful. Weapon or no weapon, the resources on Earth might intrigue them. Weapon or no weapon, the planet was fucked if the Galra got here.

“Why don’t we figure out what the weapon is before we do anything with it?” said Lance, holding his hands up. “Pidge, Shiro, you guys said this thing is called ‘Voltron’, right?”

“Yes,” said Shiro. He added in a low voice, “Though I don’t remember how I know that.”

“There goes my next question,” said Lance, with a slightly bitter twist of his lips.

“Lance is right,” said Hunk. “Let’s find this ‘Voltron’ thing first, then decide. There’s no use fighting over what to do with it when we don’t even have it.”

With that, Hunk and Lance led the way out, Pidge grumbling behind them as she followed. Sharing a look with Keith as he passed, Shiro followed them all from the rear. Outside, his eyes were drawn to the sky again, amazed that he ever took such a wondrous thing for granted.

“Shiro, you’re falling behind,” Keith called, his voice alarmingly distant as the others crested a nearby hill, leaving Shiro only ten feet in front of the shack. When had he stopped?

“Sorry,” said Shiro, jogging to keep up.

 

* * *

 

“We should have…rethunk…our water situation,” Lance gasped not ten minutes later, sweating profusely and starting to lag. He had taken off his jacket and wrapped it around his waist, though the long-sleeved shirt he wore couldn’t have helped matters any. “This is…awful.”

But he seemed to be the only person affected by the heat; when Shiro glanced around, the others were staring at Lance like he’d grown a second head, not a bead of sweat to be found. Even to Shiro, who was unused to weather patterns now, thought it was only a mild day.

“We’re close to where the weapon should be,” said Hunk.  “The caves will be nice and cool. Think you can hold out?”

“I suppose…there’s not much…choice.”

If he got much worse, Shiro was fully prepared to run back to the shack and find a bottle of water somewhere.

“I thought you were from Cuba?” asked Keith, frowning down at Lance with more than a little bit of judgement. “Isn’t it, like, hot there? How’d you live there if the heat gets you like this?”

“There were… _beaches_ …you absolute fucknut.”

Shiro watched, biting back a sigh, as Keith took half a step forward with his fists clenched, preparing to snap back. Stepping between them, Shiro raised his hands to quell the impending argument.

“We don’t have time for bickering,” he said, and Keith shot him a look that almost seemed betrayed, then turned away in a huff, folding his arms over his chest. Whatever. As long as he didn’t have to break up a fight, Shiro didn’t care how everyone sulked. “We need to find that weapon—and Lance needs to get out of the sun before he dies,” he added, watching Lance droop over and grab his knees, panting audibly. “Come on. Let’s hustle, everyone.”

“Keith, take this,” said Pidge, handing Keith the large antenna he’d been holding. Keith fumbled with it, barely catching it before it slipped out of his grasp as Pidge walked over to Lance and helped him get upright. He even let Lance lean on him, despite their vast size difference. “Come on, you lump. Let’s go.”

As Shiro passed Keith, he noted a strange look in Keith’s eyes as he watched Pidge and Lance hobble by. Almost like longing? That was until Hunk started walking again, and the cord connecting his contraption to the antenna jerked Keith along. Making a mental note to have a chat with Keith later, Shiro kept his position at the back. If an enemy approached from behind, he was the only person capable of taking them out quickly.

“I’m getting stronger readings!” Hunk exclaimed finally. He turned sharply, and only Keith’s quick reflexes saved the antenna from being ripped out. “Looks like it’s coming from one of the cave entrances over here.”

“Good job, Hunk,” Shiro called back. Pidge and Lance stumbled awkwardly along in front of him, Lance murmuring apologies the entire time. “Are you good, Lance?”

Lance clumsily tried to give him a thumb’s up, but he could barely raise his hand up past his chest.

“He’ll be better in the shade,” said Pidge. “The heat’s never quite agreed with him.”

The inside of the cave was at least twenty degrees cooler. As Hunk dragged Keith around to keep exploring, Pidge led Lance over to a protrusion in the wall to sit, and he did so with a heavy sigh of relief.

And then Lance’s back touched the wall.

Shiro shielded his eyes at the explosion of blue light that resulted, runes appearing along the walls one by one. He didn’t recognise any of them. They seemed to hum with energy, the light pulsating. No one else had touched the walls, only Lance.

“What did you do?!” Pidge yelped at Lance.

“I don’t know!” Lance jumped off the rock, inching backwards, pure terror on his face. Until he was at the dead centre of the cave. The blue light burst to life beneath his feet, forming a circle. Nobody heard the splintering of rock until it was too late.

“Lance, watch out!” Shiro lunged forward, hand outstretched to grab something, anything of Lance, but his hand hit open air. Screaming in terror, Lance fell through the hole in the ground, disappearing into the inky blackness below. “Lance!”

Dropping his scanner with a loud clatter, Hunk threw himself at the hole. “Lance! _Lance_! Can you hear me, buddy? Talk to me!”

“We need to go in after him,” said Keith, tossing aside the antenna. He marched up to the hole, appearing to steel himself like he was about to jump in.

“Hang on,” said Shiro, hurrying to grab Keith by the shoulder. “We don’t know how deep this thing goes. If Lance is injured, then we might end up the same way. We’re no use to him if we all get broken bones, or even killed.”

Keith gnashed his teeth in frustration, smacking his thighs. “Then what are we supposed to do?”

“Do any of you have a light we can shine down there?” Shiro glanced around at them all, but the lost, frightened expressions they all wore was enough of an answer. With only the clothes on his back, he was just as useless as the others. It wasn’t a good feeling. “Okay, so that plan’s out.”

“Look, just let me jump down there,” said Keith, shrugging out from under Shiro’s hand. “I can tell you what I see, and the safest way to get to me.”

“If you think that you can call up to us, then why hasn’t Lance?” Pidge asked, biting his lip. “Maybe it’s too deep for our voices to carry?”

“Or maybe the fall knocked him out,” said Hunk. Gingerly, he got to his feet, dusting off his trousers. “We need to get down there as quickly as possible. If Keith wants to jump in, I say let him.”

“Me, too,” said Pidge.

It was best not to argue and waste time. Outvoted three to one, Shiro nodded and acquiesced. He still didn’t like the plan; it seemed way too risky. But Lance needed them. He stepped back, watching anxiously as Keith lowered himself into the hole, his arms starting to tremble as they supported his entire weight.

“Here goes nothing,” Keith said finally, dangling there precariously. And then he let go. It was only a couple of seconds later that Keith called up, sounding perturbed, “It’s only about twenty feet deep. There aren’t any sharp rocks at the bottom, no slopes. Shiro, I can see you standing there. There’s no way Lance got injured from his fall.”

“Can you see him?” asked Hunk.

“No, he’s not down here. At least not that I can see. But you guys are all clear to jump down. Just make sure you stick your landing.”

All the previous anxiety Shiro had seen from Hunk earlier was gone, replaced with grim determination that made him appear bigger, meaner. If hell itself got in Hunk’s way in that very moment, Shiro wouldn’t be surprised if he took on all the demons within it and would come out victorious. It couldn’t have been more obvious that Lance and Hunk were close.

“Pidge, you follow after me,” said Hunk. “I catch you.”

“You got it,” said Pidge.

Shiro let them go before him. As he dropped into the hole, barrel-rolling as he hit the ground and springing upright in one smooth motion to find himself standing in a network of caves. Above their heads, stalactites loomed ominously. The others were looking around nervously, unable to decide which direction to go. Until Shiro caught the edge of a blue light on the fourth tunnel to his left, seconds before it faded out of existence.

“Everyone follow me,” he said, marching down that tunnel. “Let’s go find Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment if you liked this chapter!
> 
> I'm sorry for the awkward ending to this chapter. I was going really well writing it, and then my mental health kinda crashed, so it became a toss-up between "post it in an awkward spot" or "ignore the fact that you promised yourself you'd post on Saturdays, and likely get stuck for days before ultimately giving up on the project for a while." I'm excited about this story, so I decided to go with the former.
> 
> I'll try to get a longer chapter out next week.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! My mental health took a bit of a downward turn, but I'm back now. Anyway, short chapter for now, sorry for that! Here's hoping that my chapter lengths increase once I get into the meat of the story.

Shiro led them down a veritable maze of tunnels, going deeper and deeper until he began to think there was no end to them. He tried to tune out Hunk’s panicked whispering of “trapped, oh god we’re trapped…we’re never gonna get out of here…never gonna see my mama again…” because honestly? Not helpful.

Only a soft blue light lit their path, helping them clear of the stalactites.

“If I didn’t know better,” said Pidge, pushing his glasses up his nose, “I’d say that this blue light is guiding our way through. Almost like it’s _sentient_.”

They glanced back at the tunnel they had just exited, just in time to see the blue light fade.

Keith folded his arms over his chest, looking uncomfortable. “I think that’s _exactly_ what it’s doing. Are you sure it’s even safe to follow it? Maybe we should find our way back.”

“Lance needs us,” said Hunk sharply, his previous anxiety forgotten. Half-hidden in the shadows, he seemed to loom over them, huge and fierce, something to be feared. For half a second, Keith _did_ look scared. “I’m not leaving here without him. Go back if you’re scared, Keith. The rest of us will keep going.”

“I—I didn’t say I was scared, but—”

“Then shut up.”

They lapsed into silence. Hunk glared at all of them in turn, as if waiting for someone to say something about turning back and leaving Lance behind. When none of them did, he gave a sharp nod and pushed ahead of them, stomping down the tunnel.

“Hurry up!” he called over his shoulder. “We don’t have time to waste.”

 

* * *

 

“Wh-where am I?”

_Never fear. You are with me._

“And who are you?”

_I am yours. You are mine. That is all that needs to be known._

“I’m scared. You’re so…huge, and I’m…Don’t hurt me…”

_I would never harm you. Accept me for all that I am, as I have accepted you._

“I don’t even know what you want from me.”

_Everything. Everything you have to give, I want to take. In return, I shall give you everything that I have._

“I don’t have anything to give you.”

_That is not true. Accept me, give to me, and I shall accept and give to you. You have more than you know. More than you can see or feel. Accept me and I shall show it to you._

“You won’t hurt me?”

 _Never_.

“Okay…against my better judgement, I’ll accept you. What do I have to do?”

_Remain where you are. It is I that must seal our bond together. Close your eyes._

And Lance did.

 

* * *

 

“These tunnels never end!” Keith growled, making as if to kick the wall before Hunk grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. “Are we going in circles or what?”

At this point, Shiro could hardly make a guess at the question; every tunnel looked the same, lighting up blue whenever they walked into it. For all he knew they could’ve been walking in circles without knowing it. Frustration bubbled up inside him, but he controlled it, forcing it down like bile where it sat hot and heavy in his chest.

“There’s no other choice but to keep going,” he said.

Hunk met his gaze with fear-laced approval, tilting his chin up. “We’ll find Lance eventually. I know it.”

“I wonder why Lance took off instead of trying to alert us,” Pidge mumbled, folding his arms around himself. Small as he already was, when he slouched under the weight of his concern and confusion, he looked impossibly smaller.

Shiro clapped him on the shoulder, grimacing apologetically when he almost knocked Pidge’s glasses off with the force. He’d unthinkingly used his Galra hand. “We’ll just have to ask Lance that when we find him. Let’s go.”

Blue light shot through the tunnel without warning, so bright they all cried out in pain and covered their eyes. The tunnel shook alarmingly, raining dust and dirt down upon them all.

“What’s going on?!” Pidge shouted.

Keith went down to one knee. “It’s so bright!”

Something deep within the bowels of the cave system roared, a primal noise that had Shiro’s instincts flaring up, and he backed into the nearest wall with his hands over his face. He’d heard all variations of roars from all sorts of creatures. This did not mean anything good. The blue light got impossibly brighter, forcing all of them to the ground to shield themselves, risking blindness if any of the light got through their defences. Shiro felt the heavy weight of the dirt on his back.

_Crack-crack-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK._

“The tunnel’s breaking apart!” Shiro yelled. “We need to move!”

“I can’t see!” Pidge protested.

“Doesn’t matter!” Shiro stumbled to his feet—the blue light was dimmer now, but not by much—and grabbed the back of Keith and Pidge’s jackets, hauling them to their feet. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Hunk moving too. Above them, great cracks rent the ceiling, letting loose a barrage of stones the size of Shiro’s fist. They had only a matter of seconds before the whole thing destabilised and came down on top of them. “We’ll be crushed. _Go, go, go!_ ”

They ran as if they’re lives depended on it—oh wait.

It did.

 

* * *

 

_Peace, Little One._

“I-it hurts!”

_It will all be over soon._

“A-are you kill-killing me?!’

_I am doing what must be done. I take no relish in this pain I cause you. You will live, but to bestow these powers on you, you must also die._

“IT HURTS!”

_Peace, Little One._

 

* * *

 

They burst free of the tunnel into a dome-shaped opening with glistening walls lit by the blue light that had led them there, and thousands of stalactites shaking on ceiling ready to fall, just as the tunnel behind them caved in. What _was_ this place? Shiro gaped around at the cave from where they stood on a wall of rock a good fifteen feet in above the ground. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Along the walls, there were the runes like the ones Lance had touched before he’d fallen through the ground, pulsating with energy.

“There he is!” shouted Hunk, pulling Shiro from his thoughts. Without hesitation, he found his way down to the cavern floor by sitting down on the edge of the wall and sliding down on his backside. If it was painful, he didn’t let on, shouting, “Hold on, Lance, I’m coming!”

When he hit the ground, he stumbled to his feet, sprinting across the cavern toward Lance with single-minded determination.

Into the path of a giant blue mechanical lion.

“What the fuck?” Keith whispered. “What _is_ that thing? What’s it doing?”

The mechanical lion was laying down in front of Lance, who was on his knees and arched uncomfortably backwards with what passed as the lion’s nose pressed to his chest. The blue light encompassed them most strongly here, so bright it was almost white. The runes were burned into the palms of Lance’s hands.

“We better get down there, too,” said Shiro, hurrying to the edge that Hunk had pushed himself off of, hearing Keith and Pidge follow him.

Getting down to the ground hurt. Rocks jutted up at random, catching on skin and clothes, threatening to send them into a devastating tumble. Shiro gritted his teeth at the pain. After a year as a prisoner, this was nothing. Lance needed him. Several seconds and half a dozen new cuts and bruises later, he finally hit the bottom in a heap, muttering curses under his breath.

“Lance! No!”

Shiro looked up.

From out of nowhere, water erupted around Lance, encircling him and hiding him from view. When Hunk got too close, the lion lifted a paw and batted him aside like a fly, sending him flying back a good ten feet into the dirt.

“Hunk!” Pidge cried, running over to him.

The energy inside the room built into a crescendo. _Something terrible is about to happen_ , thought Shiro, rooted to the spot as the blue light inside the cavern continued to pulsate, getting faster and faster. _And I’m utterly powerless to stop it._

The vortex of water spun around Lance, who was beginning to thrash within its confines, mouth agape as if he was screaming. Desperate for air that would not come.

“Let him go! Let him go!” Hunk shrieked, as Pidge helped him sit up. “ _You’re going to kill him!_ ”

Lance went limp.

The water receded, sinking into the ground immediately. Lying on his back with his arms outflung, Lance did not move. His eyes were wide open, staring sightlessly above him.

“No!” howled Hunk. He shoved Pidge to the ground with a wild swipe of his arm as he scrambled to his knees, crawling over to Lance’s body and hauling him up into his arms. Pressed his cheek to Lance’s chest, kept a hand above Lance’s mouth to check for any signs of breathing. He rocked Lance back and forth, sobbing and begging as Pidge crept closer to them. The lion stood over them, watching impassively.

Shiro held his breath, hoping against hope.

“NO! NO NO NO _NO NO **NO NO**_!”

The heart-wrenching wail that left Hunk’s lips was all the terrible confirmation he needed.

Lance was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do believe I said the chapters would get longer. At this point, I'm just not going to promise anything. I write chapters until I feel like I should stop and put them up before I lose motivation. I tend to lose focus with fanfics easier than I do original works, and chapters of fanfics come out way shorter. I average 7-8k for original chapters and 1-3k for fanfics. Don't know why. Anyway! I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter. :D

Rooted to the spot as Hunk continued to cry over Lance’s body, Shiro had no idea what to do yet still burned with the desire to do _something_. The mechanical lion growled and pawed at the ground, growing distressed, as Hunk dragged Lance out of reach any time it drew near.

“Hunk,” said Shiro, “maybe you should let the lion have a look at Lance.”

He could hardly believe what he was suggesting but the lion had to have more of a grasp on the situation than any of them. The runes—three ripples like the ocean waves encased in a diamond—on Lance’s palms were fading. Intuition told him that they were interfering on matters too big for any of them to understand.

“What?” Pidge yelped from where he was sitting at Hunk’s left, red-rimmed eyes shooting Shiro a look of pure betrayal. “That lion,” he jabbed a finger at the mechanical lion in question, who let out a low grumble, “is the one that did this to him in the first place!”

“It killed Lance,” Hunk choked out. Lance’s head was cradled in the crook of his shoulder, his mouth agape. His eyes were only half open and seemed fixed on Shiro somehow. Swallowing back his growing unease, Shiro looked away. “ _It killed Lance_.”

“I know, buddy,” said Shiro, “but something tells me it did that for a reason, and it’s not going to stay patient with you. Look at Lance’s hands! Those marks are fading, and the lion is growing restless. If you don’t let the lion get to Lance it’ll make you move aside with force.”

“Let it! Whatever it wants to do with Lance, it will have to go through me first—”

“Hunk—”

The lion finally had enough. Stepping forward, it nipped at the back of Hunk’s jacket and lifted him clear off the floor. It shook him until Lance fell from his arms, then set him gently on the ground beside Shiro. Hunk was dazed, trembling from head to toe. The lion knocked Pidge over with a paw when he tried to take Hunk’s place at Lance’s side, firmly asserting dominance over them all.

The lion scooped Lance into its maw and retreated a few steps back, then set him on the ground again. As it lowered its head over Lance’s prone body, the lion pierced the others with a look, rooting them to the spot. It pressed its nose to Lance’s chest.

The cave exploded with light once more. Shiro heard the others cry out as he threw up his arms to protect his heads. Strong gusts of wind ravaged the area, tearing at Shiro’s clothes, forcing him down to one knee.

“I’m getting real sick of this lion trying to blind us!” shouted Keith.

The lion let out an ear-splitting roar as Shiro started to speak his agreement. Cracking his eyes open, Shiro peered through the gasps in his fingers, unable to deny his curiosity the chance to witness what was going on. His jaw dropped.

Instead of remaining on the ground, Lance hung in the air with no assistance, swallowed by a vortex of water that erupted from the point of contact between him and the lion. With his head tilted back, his arms out-flung, he looked…almost _divine_. Like a divine entity.

 _We’re not dealing with something normal,_ Shiro realised, rather belatedly. _Whatever this lion thing is, it’s something far greater than we could ever understand._

A high-pitched whistle from the air itself, blue light growing brighter and brighter until it was almost pure white, warned Shiro of what was about to happen just before it did.

“Cover your eyes!” he screamed, throwing his arms over his face.

An explosion rocked the cave, raining dust and dirt upon them all—seconds before a torrent of water slammed into Shiro, throwing him back against the rocks and submerging him entirely. He opened his eyes to pure darkness. Which way was up? He hadn’t taken a deep breath, hadn’t expected this to happen, oh shit, was he gonna _drown_?

And then the water was gone.

Gasping for air, he pushed his sopping fringe out of his forehead and looked around for the mechanical lion.

“What…just happened?” Hunk whispered.

Pidge coughed, spitting out a mouthful of water. “I don’t know.”

Keith sat up, trembling. “Never seen anything like it before.”

The mechanical lion sat back on its haunches, head tilted back, the very picture of stoic regality that Shiro had ever seen. And at its feet lay Lance.

Ignoring his own aches and pains, Shiro shoved himself to his feet and stumbled over. He carefully rolled Lance onto his back, fingers pressing against the pulse point on his neck. Seconds passed agonisingly as he pressed into the cold, wet skin, searching. Searching…

“Lance!” Hunk crawled over on his hands and knees. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay!”

 _Oh god, what if it’s killed him?_ Shiro thought, terror turning his blood to ice. _I already lost my Kerberos crew, is the universe really going to be so cruel as to take someone else away too? And not even five minutes after I met them? Am I really that cursed—_

“Shiro?” Hunk asked, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. Tears beaded his wide, desperate eyes. “Is he—”

_Buh-thump, buh-thump, buh-thump._

Shiro froze as he felt the weak yet steady heartbeat against his fingers.

“He’s alive,” he whispered. Then louder, relieved, “He’s alive!”

“Oh, thank god!” Hunk immediately whipped Lance up into his arms for what appeared to be a bone-crushing hug. Behind them, Pidge let out a sob of relief.

The lion lowered its head and stared at them. Weirdly, it felt to Shiro as if it was saying, ‘I told you everything would be fine.’ It cracked open its jaw. A ramp slid out, cracking the stones beneath where it came to rest.

Keith appeared at Shiro’s shoulder, staring up at the lion distrustfully. “I think it wants us to get inside. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not after what it did to him.” He jerked his head in Lance’s direction. “It almost killed him.”

“But it didn’t,” said Pidge. He had crawled over and was now pressed against Hunk’s side, an arm wrapped around Lance’s middle. “And killing him didn’t seem to be its intention. This lion knows more than we do about what’s going on. I don’t trust it, not by a long-shot, but we need to know what it wants.”

“ _By stepping inside its mouth?_ ”

“I agree with Pidge,” said Hunk. “I don’t trust it either, mind, but it wants Lance for something.”

Keith folded his arms over his chest. “So you’d both rather put us all in danger than doing the smart thing and getting the hell out of here?”

“Nobody said you had to come,” snapped Pidge. “Besides, we weren’t able to find another point of exit. We’re likely in the bowels of this cavern. If we tried to get out on our own, we might die of starvation before we made it out. I don’t know about you, but I did not bring enough food or water for five people to last days. So if you know of another way we can leave, I’m all ears.”

But all Keith did was scowl, thoroughly beaten. He turned to Shiro beseechingly, willing him to take his side, but Shiro couldn’t.

“There’s a great risk in going with this lion,” he said, nodding his head to the lion who remained patiently waiting with its ramp still lowered, “but there’s an even greater risk of death if we don’t. I don’t like this any more than you do, Keith, but we have to trust it. At least for now.”

Keith’s furious scowl grew worse. “Fine! Fine. If you’re all going, I’ll go too.”

They waited for Hunk to gather Lance in his arms before they boarded the lion with no small amount of trepidation.

When they all boarded, the ramp immediately swept back up inside with a heart-stopping clang, and they were left in darkness.

Until Lance’s eyes snapped open.  

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to try for weekly updates. I currently have a NaNoWriMo goal-tracker of 100,000 words for this fic, alongside my original work, that expires on the 31st of November. We'll see how that goes. 
> 
> Note for this chapter: I headcanon that Lance grew up speaking more Spanish than English, but when he began to learn more about the language to get into the Garrison, his family learned too. He's still grasping colloquialisms and contractions at this stage, and sometimes forgets a word, but achieves perfectly fluency by the time Shiro hits Earth again.
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed this chapter!


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